Structures is responsible for the design and fabrication of
MAAV's airframes. We make as many of our structural
components as we can in-house in order to heavily optimize
for the IARC. We use a mixture of aluminum and wax molds
for the carbon fiber parts of the airframe, milled plastic
for the heavy duty core, and 3D printing for the
accessories to create a strong, light airframe that can
withstand intense aerial maneuvers and crashes. We use
CATIA for design and simulation and Subversion for
collaboration.
Circuits designs and builds both the vehicle's electrical
hardware and various other electrical hardware, such as
electronics for testing motors and materials. The vehicle's
printed circuit board (PCB) has to provide a platform for
the control software to run and communicate with the
navigation software, as well as manage the safety of the
battery, motors, and operators. We design with Eagle
and use Subversion for collaboration.
Our UAV requires an accurate, high-speed control algorithm
to achieve stable flight and maintain safety for operators.
The controls subteam designs, implements, and tests our
control software. This software takes instructions from the
navigation software and moves the vehicle accordingly. If
there is no navigation software running, the control
software maintains a steady state. Our control software is
written in C and runs on a microcontroller. We use Git for
source code version control.
The IARC is first and foremost an autonomy challenge; the
members of the Navigation subteam write software that makes
the vehicle truly autonomous. We write computer vision
code, path planning code, and the high level decision
making code that decides which objective of the competition
to work on next while the vehicle is flying. Navigation
also researches dedicated hardware solutions to various
image processing and navigation tasks. We write code using
C++, use Git for version control, and use the Jenkins
continuous integration server.
